Pasque Flowers Beginning at Royston Heath

The Pasque flowers are just beginning to flower - a bit later than some years but will probably be best around Easter as their name suggests. They are very short so quite a challenge to photograph plus a stiff breeze today. Most are Focus stacks using Fuji X100V and Raynox 250 close-up lens. I find this a very useful high quality combination for flower photography. We found one very small bee - a Lasioglossum species

Windy Walk on Royston Heath

I walked across Royston Heath, through the Beechwoods and back along the edge of the golf course this morning admiring the winter trees and wind-swept clouds. As with my hunt for flowers in bloom in Toft on January 1st, I found only a single dandelion and small patches of Groundsel though the Hazel catkins are in full flower

 

Frosty Dawn from A10

Some images as the sun rose on a frosty misty morning on Sunday (near Barkway) on way to Rye meads

 

Royston Heath Pasque Flowers

We made our annual pilgrimage to Royston Heath to see the Pasque flowers late yesterday afternoon. Not the best conditions as very windy so focus stacks were difficult/ A very good year in terms of numbers of flowers though they have been damaged by the frosts and winds.

Short-Eared Owls Hertfordshire

We decided to try a different location for Short-Eared Owls and drove over to Heartwood Forest near Welwyn, where we joined lots of other owl watchers including Ray. My favourites were the first two images, which are the last I took yesterday when the sun finally came through just before we headed home. The light at 3pm when we spied the first owls was not good and I really missed my 300mm 2.8 lens as working on the 7D and 100-400 mm resulted in very noisy images. However, I enjoyed the visit very much with lighter equipment and the photos are certainly good enough to remind me of the experience. Will take tripod next time!! Last image is of Rudolph the Red-nosed Owl!!